viziblr

The Scenario

One has a lot of oddly named files such as thsoe produced by a digital camera.

Example of what a digital camera might produce:

• pic383718.jpg
• pic120453.jpg
• pic938889.jpg
• pic109012.jpg
• pic433590.jpg
• pic219093.jpg

The Pain Experienced

• The names are meaningless
• The ordering is unclear
• One has to open them up to determine their content and order

What is Desired

• Give the files nice names that make sense without having to open them up.
• A way to do this without having to download or purchase a tool

Windows XP comes with a built-in solution to batch rename files

• Browse Windows Exploer to the files you want to fix
• Switch to Details view (recommended, but not required)
• Order the view by time or name or size as desired
• multi-select all the files to with the names you don't like
• While the files are selected, right click on the file you want to consider as the *first* one. The context menu will appear.
• Select Rename
• The file upon which you right-clicked will now show that you can edit its name
• Change the name as desired and add a space and a starting number in parenthesis and leave the extension alone
  • Example:
    • Rename this file: "pic383718.jpg"
    • To this: "My Vacation in Italy (1).jpg"
• The rest of the files will be renamed to match that pattern.
  • Final Output
    • My Vacation in Italy (1).jpg
    • My Vacation in Italy (2).jpg
    • My Vacation in Italy (3).jpg
    • My Vacation in Italy (4).jpg
    • My Vacation in Italy (5).jpg
    • My Vacation in Italy (6).jpg

What happens if the number in parenthesis is left out? For example, if one named the first file "foo.jpg"?

The results will look like this:

• foo.jpg
• foo (1).jpg
• foo (2).jpg
• foo (3).jpg
• foo (4).jpg
• foo (5).jpg